Booker Prize: Sales Impact & Author Success After Winning

Explore the impact of the Booker Prize on book sales and author careers. Discover if winning guarantees long-term success, examining sales data post-award for various authors. The 'Booker bounce' examined.

Up until now this century, the prize has been awarded 26 times, to 25 various writers– Margaret Atwood (2000 and 2019) and Hilary Mantel (2009 and 2012) have actually won it twice because period, with Atwood sharing the prize with Bernardine Evaristo in 2019. Some of those writers, consisting of the aforementioned Atwood, and the previously thrice-nominated Julian Barnes (he won the reward in 2011), were currently developed leviathans of the literary scene– while others such as DBC Pierre (2003) and Douglas Stuart (2020) won with their launching stories.

Initial Sales Boost After Booker Win

This year’s victor David Szalay’s Flesh jumped from offering 163 copies a week to 653 once the shortlist was revealed– in the week because its success it has catapulted even additionally to 7,906 copies, an increase of 1,441% according to NielsenIQ BookData, as publisher Jonathan Cape competed to restock bookshops.

When Samantha Harvey’s Orbital caught the prize in 2024, it saw its sales receive a boost of 818%– adding virtually 10,000 duplicates to its once a week sales and taking it to the top of the graphes, possibly aided by it already remaining in mass-market paperback.

A mixed bag of outcomes show no conclusive evidence in either case of ensured success following a Booker win– though maybe it does indicate that Booker Prize champs are more likely to be a not-so-prolific lot. All eyes will certainly be on 2026 when 2017’s winner George Saunders launches his initial full-length Booker follow-up, Vigil.

Post-Award Novel Sales Trends

The most current champion to have actually released a post-award story is Stuart, whose champion Shuggie Bain was complied with by Youthful Mungo in 2022. It is probably no surprise to learn that sales of the former outstrip the last by almost four to one– yet first week sales of Stuart’s 2nd novel amounted to 11,865 copies– greater than 11,000 on top of the 489 duplicates that Shuggie Bain offered in its first week, the exact same week that the longlist for that year’s prize was revealed.

Prior to Stuart, we need to take a trip back to 2015’s Marlon James, to locate an additional Booker winner who has actually published subsequent novels following their win. For James, it is the title preceding his Booker win that is his second-biggest hit. As much as completion of 2014, James’ second outing The Book of Evening Female had actually marketed 16,904 duplicates across all editions (his very first, John Crow’s Adversary, was not commonly offered in the UK until late-2015).

Sales Compared to Previous Books

It took twenty years following her 1997 win for The God of Tiny Points for Roy to release her 2nd book, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, and it appeared that in this circumstances, the delay did construct anticipation. Roy’s 2nd unique sold 52,486 devices in its first year for sale following its magazine in June 2017 and has because gone on to market an overall of 140,201 duplicates, though this is still 80% less sales than her prize winner. Roy’s memoir Mom Mary Involves Me has sold 11,757 copies considering that its magazine in September of this year.

Richard Flanagan’s two novels following his 2013 win for The Narrow Roadway to the Deep North have sold approximately 4,564 copies– down on his pre-win standard of 14,617 duplicates. That number is manipulated rather by Flanagan’s hit 2001 publication, Gould’s Book of Fish; but also omitting that, the average comes in greater than 1,000 copies greater than his post-Booker win efficiency.

Up to the end of 2014, James’ 2nd trip The Publication of Evening Female had actually sold 16,904 duplicates across all editions (his initial, John Crow’s Evil one, was not commonly offered in the UK up until late-2015).

Roy’s 2nd unique offered 52,486 units in its very first year on sale following its magazine in June 2017 and has because gone on to offer a total amount of 140,201 copies, though this is still 80% fewer sales than her reward winner. Roy’s memoir Mother Mary Comes to Me has offered 11,757 duplicates considering that its publication in September of this year.

In in between those 2 posts is a listing of authors that have actually seen sales of their backlist overshadowed by those of their winning title– 80% of the 452,053 books marketed by Harvey, as an example, are accounted to the Wiltshire-based writer’s 5th– and most current– unique Orbital.

The ‘Booker Bounce’ Effect

The “Booker bounce” is larger than any type of related to any type of other reward– in volume terms at the very least. Helen Garner’s How to End a Story saw its regular sales rise 1,288% from 54 to 750 duplicates in the week promptly following its Baillie Gifford win, while the book version of Rachel Clarke’s The Tale of a Heart saw a 256.4% enter its 2nd week on sale when it was disclosed as winner of the Female’s Prize for Non-Fiction in June of this year.

On its release in 2019, Black Leopard, Red Wolf offered 11,522 hardback devices– in complete throughout all versions it has actually sold 28,240 copies, delaying a little behind The Book of Night Women’s 34,414– yet far ahead of the 7,138 systems offered by 2022’s Moon Witch, Spider King.